Thursday, November 18, 2010

I'll be the first to admit that living on a plastic classic (read old) boat and trying to run a couple of business concerns while afloat has its ups and downs... But, that said, it is mostly a win/win situation with only a few fear and loathing situations.

Over the years I have made no secret of my respect for our Honda 2000i which seems to have become as much a standard bit of equipage for cruising boats these days as baseball hats, solar panels and wind generators. I've been keeping an unofficial tally and it seems that the Honda 1000i and 2000i seem to be on 75% of cruising boats we run across and that says a lot...

What most people who own a Honda won't tell you is they also have their dark side and a couple of WTF design features that drive their owners nuts. Truth is, I often ponder how someone who designed such a fine machine could also design in such an awful situation where changing the oil is concerned. The words sadistic bastard comes to mind!

The problem is that the oil fill and drain spigot is in a place that makes pouring the used oil out nearly impossible without pouring it all over the cockpit and on your favorite pair of shorts while putting serious strain on your sanity. What's worse is that since the spigot is within the confines of the generator, part of the spill is always internal and hidden. So, after cleaning up the cockpit and suchlike, when you pick up the generator it favors you with a secondary spill just in case your favorite shorts had escaped being ruined in the first go round. But the fun is not over... because of its recessed position, filling the Honda with new oil is also seriously problematic...

How to cope? Well, I'm betting that a lot of Honda owners get by with fewer than needful oil changes and since the Honda is such a great machine, it seems to get by with a lot more abuse than other lesser generators but to an air cooled engine, oil is what makes it run and run.

Then there are those anal retentive types who have spreadsheeets that tell them exactly when an oil change is required and do them religiously at exactly the right time (you know I'm not that guy) usually breaking up a round of sundowners to hurry home to change the oil... Fact is, they are not often missed as they mostly bore you to death going on and on about next-gen-anchors and how superior they are...